Individually, today, ten powerful politicians lay down the law, exact the toll, distribute it, after taking their major share, pass sentence of life and death on good and bad, direct the huge and intricate machinery, pay off the hundreds of employes,—principally members of the police department,—high and low, and plan to enlarge and strengthen the greatest, strangest and most complex organization in the world.
It is the Directorate of Ten!
They have divided the city between them and their vassals. They are the rulers of the mysterious underworld, living like princes and rulers in the white palaces of the overworld, surfeited with the heavy luxuries of life.
POLITICS, POLICE AND VICE.
Political power is the greatest of all power. It can subjugate with iron hand all other powers.
The Directorate of Ten found willing agents in the police department of Chicago. It has them today, and if needs be, can find more. Human souls are easily purchased.
Today the system is intricate. So intricate that the combine has received the appellation,—the Vice System.
To exist, vice, in any one of its thousand forms, must pay tribute. The tribute is shared with the police for protection.
Many police inspectors, captains, lieutenants, sergeants and patrolmen receive portions.
Segregation, flaunted to the world as the best remedy yet found for the social evil, is but a lie on the part of the Vice Trust.